Shares
floated for football clubFrom
Emmanuel Wongibe in KumboGreat billows of dust rise as
players challenge for the ball in a Cameroon first
division football match between Kumbo Strikers and rivals
Cintra from Yaounde.

Marketing Indian football abroadBy Ramu
SharmaAt its annual general body meeting last month
the All India Football Federation while adjudging former
India captain Sailen Manna as the footballer of the
millennium and I.M. Vijayan as the player of
the year(1999) also took some far-reaching
decisions to improve the image of the game in the
country.

TEE OFF

K.
R. WadhwaneyWill luck smile on Jeev
Milkha?JEEV Milkha Singh, fully
recovered after his recent indisposition, will be
one of the forerunners for the Indian Open which
will be staged at the Classic Golf Resort
(Gurgaon) next week.

Mongia
joins elite clubBy
S. Pervez QaiserNayan Mongia became the third
Indian wicket keeper and 23 overall to complete 100
dismissals in Test cricket. He achieved this feat when be
pouched an edge from his South African counterpart, Mark
Boucher off the bowling of left-arm spinner Murali
Karthik on the second day of the first Test match at
Bombay on February 25. It was his 41st Test match.

Great billows of dust rise as
players challenge for the ball in a Cameroon first
division football match between Kumbo Strikers and rivals
Cintra from Yaounde.

It is the dry season on
the savannah around Kumbo, in North West Province. A
stranger to town might express alarm at the thick brown
cloud enveloping the footballers. Does the referee have a
proper view of what is going on? Are some unscrupulous
players taking advantage of the smokescreen to commit
fouls?

The devoted fans
chanting behind the wooden fences at the Tobin stadium
appear oblivious to the poor visibility. It takes more
than dust to spoil the game in this football-mad country
which has just won the African Cup of Nations for the
third time  therefore retaining the trophy
permanently.

Manga Onguene, a former
star player and now assistant coach to the national team
 the Indomitable Lions  describes Comeroon as
a nation of 14 million coaches. So far,
however, their expertise has not extended to financing
the football league effectively.

But things are changing.
While each of the 16 clubs competing in the first
division championship has its own tale of monetary
misery, here in Kumbo, light is definitely shining
through a dusty haze at the end of the financial tunnel.

Kumbo Strikers are a
relatively new team, who entered the first division only
five years ago. After sinking into an initial and all too
typical financial crisis, their fortunes are being turned
around by a novel scheme in which fans can buy a stake in
a company set up to subsidise the club through business
enterprises.

The venture, Kumbo
Strikers Ltd, was launched in 1997 and offered shares
 worth 25,000 CFA francs each  to supporters.
So far, 75 million CFA francs in capital has been raised
as hundreds of stakeholders have rallied to the cause.
Some have bought more than others, but nobody has a
controlling share.

The company began by
running a transport business. It now has 14 commuter
buses and has plans to expand the fleet. A petrol station
has recently been acquired.

The company helps the
club by transporting players to games across the country,
providing equipment and paying signing fees.

Company co-ordinator
Eric Ndze confirmed that the idea had gone down well with
locals. It has given them the feeling of ownership
of the team so dear to them, he says. As a result,
the club was kept afloat. In addition, they are
assured dividends on their investment.

A former player for the
Strikers, Augustine Nstimi, says of the bad old days when
heavy losses almost destroyed them: The care the
locals showed us  sharing their meals and homes
with us  was a great source of inspiration.

This loyalty from fans
gave one supporter, Lawrence Tasha, a successful banker
who grew up locally, the idea for the shares scheme. He
had used a similar method to raise money when setting up
his Amity Bank in Cameroons main financial centre,
Douala.

In a country with a
relatively underdeveloped corporate culture, the popular
sport of soccer provided the ideal vehicle for conveying
the big-city business concept to the largely rural
population of Kumbo.

One contented
shareholder, Elvis Wiyla, a tailor who describes himself
as semi-literate, says his love for football was the main
reason for buying shares in Kumbo Strikers Ltd. It
was the first time I had heard about shares, he
said. I didnt understand how the system
worked.

Now, he describes the
success of the team  which is doing well in the top
half of the first division  and the commercial
bonuses this has brought the town as an
irresistible bonus. He enjoys the friendly
atmosphere of equality at board meetings, which
bring together a range of people from various
occupations.

In a town of 200,000
inhabitants, with four competing transport companies,
Kumbo Strikers Ltds bus service enjoys the
commercial advantage of being linked to the club.

The name Kumbo
Strikers brings free publicity on a weekly basis as first
division fixtures and results are being announced each
day over radio and television, says the company
co-ordinator Ndze. In turn, the buses promote the club,
which is now enjoying healthy gate receipts and appears
on course for financial viability.

One young female fan
said proudly as she hopped on a Strikers bus:
I am indirectly supporting the team and
consequently the development of my town.

At least one other
top-flight Cameroonian football club has been drawn to
the idea of launching a sister transport company, and
others are looking on with interest. 
GEMINI NEWS

At its annual general body meeting
last month the All India Football Federation while
adjudging former India captain Sailen Manna as the
footballer of the millennium and I.M. Vijayan
as the player of the year(1999) also took
some far-reaching decisions to improve the image of the
game in the country.

The steps included a
Millennium Cup competition featuring national teams and
the launching of the Mission of Glory project
by May this year. Accordingly, a foreign coach will work
with a technical director and three assistant coaches and
a professional manager with a select group of 36 players.
The players and the involved clubs are to be compensated
to ensure that there would be no problems.

Then there was the
planned conference being organised in the University
College of Northampton with the specific aim of bringing
together interested academics, supporters, the media,
government and the representatives of the football
industry. The conference is the brainchild of Jas Baines,
who is associated with the Sapphire Enterprize Ltd,
overseas agents of the All India Football Federation, Dr.
Jim Mills and Dr. Paul Dimen, attached with the history
and sports studies department of Northampton University
respectively and Mr. Arunava Chaudhari who runs a website
on Indian football from Germany. The whole exercise is to
sell Indian football on the historic occasion of the
Indian teams tour of England this year. It is a publicity
exercise and even if Indian football standards are not
all that great there will at least be a realisation that
the game is still the biggest crowd puller in the
country, cricket or no cricket.

All these plans make
good reading but unfortunately the publicity recently
received by Indian football is far from complimentary.
The news that the Asian Football Confederation has
suspended Mohun Bagan for one year and has also slapped a
fine of $3,000 for not honouring its commitment in the
Asian Clubs Championships is hardly conducive to the
popularity of Indian football in a year in which the
federation has drawn such big plans to sell it abroad.

The story relating to
the subsequent imposition of fine added to the suspension
for one year has to do with Mohun Bagans away and
home match against Japans Jubilo Iwata in the Asian
Club Championship tournament. Mohun Bagan, by virtue of
its NLF title in 1998 had qualified for the event and had
had a bad experience when it met Jubilo Iwata in the
first leg in Japan. It lost 8-0. The return match was
scheduled to be held in Calcutta during Dushera festival.
The city police refused to give permission for the match
as it clashed with the festival. Mohun Bagan informed
Jubilo Iwata of the problems facing it and forfeited the
second leg match.

The Calcutta club,
however, made two major mistakes. It did not keep the
All-India Football Federation informed about the problems
and also it waited till the last minute to intimate its
helplessness to hold the match to the Japanese club. In
fact this message reached the club even as the players
were about to leave for India. Naturally the Japanese
club was upset and straightaway complained to the Asian
Football Confederation and asked for compensation..

The AFC took a serious
view of Mohun Bagans forfeiture of the match and
barred the club from participating in the Asian Club
Championship for a period of one year. It also asked
Mohun Bagan to pay a fine of $ 3000. This is the first
time in the history of Indian football that such a thing
has happened.

These happenings
naturally woke up the All India Football Federation which
has now started asking questions and apportioning blame.
Mohun Bagan has been pulled up for bypassing the
federation in the matter of forfeiting the match and also
informing the Japanese Club on its own instead of routing
the message through the federation. It is a minor thing
but the federation has a point though. But at the same
time the Federation too is to blame. No international
match involving an Indian club, either in India or
abroad, can be held without the federation coming into
the picture.

Surely the federation
knew about Mohun Bagans fixtures with the Japanese
club. If not, why not? It is not possible and right for
any Indian club to involve itself in international
engagement without the knowledge of the federation. How
did Mohun Bagan keep this thing quiet, if it did so?

And then there is the
club itself. Surely it should have shouted for help when
the city police refused permission for the match. It was
not merely a match between teams from two countries. It
was more than that. The countrys prestige was
involved and so was the credibility of the federation.
The other aspect related to the clashing of dates. Surely
the date of the match was fixed well in advance.
According to reports, Mohun Bagan knew about it three
months prior to the match. And it should also have known
that the date clashes with Dushera since the festival
dates are also known well in advance, perhaps a year or
so.

Why did Mohun Bagan not
ask for another date or a change in venue, perhaps even
outside of Calcutta? And why did it not appeal to the IFA
or the AIFF to help out when the city police refused
permission? And more importantly why did it wait till the
last minute to inform the Japanese club. If reports about
the information reaching even as the players were getting
ready to leave for India are correct, Mohun Bagan will
have to do something drastic to make up for this
unforgivable lapse. There is no point in saying sorry.
That word has no meaning for such cases. Both the AIFF
and Mohun Bagan are to be blamed for this sordid episode
which has done irreparable harm to the countrys
reputation in the year the AIFF is trying rebuild and
project a new image.

JEEV Milkha Singh, fully recovered
after his recent indisposition, will be one of the
forerunners for the Indian Open which will be staged at
the Classic Golf Resort (Gurgaon) next week.

The field is wide and
tough. Some well-known players of international calibre
are in the field. There are also many Indians who are
aspirants for the title.

Apart from Jeev Milkha
Singh, there are Gaurav Ghei, Feroz Ali, Vijay Kumar,
Chaurasia and host of others who are in their razor-sharp
form.

Luck did not smile on
Jeev on the Delhi Golf Club in many important
competitions that he played on the course in recent
years. But maybe, his luck will change at the Gurgaon
course which is unquestionably an outstanding course. It
is the home course for the ITC, main sponsors for the
tournament. It is the most prestigious competition for
any professional, particularly Indian, to win it.

The course has been
specially done up for the competition which will be
staged there for the first time. The analysts feel that
the course may be tough but it is such challenging one
that professionals may be able to return impressive
cards. The weather is also ideal for the golfers to rise
to the occasion.

The organisers have made
befitting arrangements for participants. Most of them
will be lodged on and around the course so that they are
fresh on the course for the competition. The organisers
have also made effective arrangements for mediapersons to
cover the event, which is the biggest prize money
tournament in the country.

Harmeet Kahlon will be
among the rookies for the competition. He has not yet
struck his best form but he is endeavouring hard and he
should soon find his bearings in this class of
competition.

Ali Sher is the only
Indian to have won the competition twice. That was in
1991 and 1993 at the Delhi course. Can he repeat his
performance at Gurgaon, which is in a way part of Delhi?
If he does, it will be a great achievement. But he has,
sadly, not been playing very consistently of late.

INTERESTING

On the occasion of the
Delhi Golf Clubs golden jubilee celebrations,
Ramesh R.Kohli, a golf journalist of repute, has brought
out an eight-page bulletin, which provides relevant
information about the club, which is Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehurs gift to Delhi citizens. Unquestionably the
best-run club, it has played a pioneering role in
promoting golf, which is fast becoming a popular
discipline. After steady take-off, it is firmly planted
and India may win many laurels internationally in this
discipline.

The first meeting of the
club was held on February 25, 1950. Vishnu Sahay was the
President while Bharat Ram  he still plays golf
regularly  was the captain. It says: ...There
was a mistri, a professional, a senior caddy, a bearer, a
chowkidar and some malis. They were in the salary range
of Rs 30-50. with an annual increment of annas
eight.

The bulletin has several
tit-bits, which make interesting reading. The club should
have brought out pictorial book on golf which, if it is
thriving today, it is because of this club.

There are several girls
and boys, who have taken golf seriously. The standard is
indeed improving. But the girls progress is not as
consistent as it should be. Both girls and boys need more
facilities and exposure.

Nayan Mongia became the third
Indian wicket keeper and 23 overall to complete 100
dismissals in Test cricket. He achieved this feat when be
pouched an edge from his South African counterpart, Mark
Boucher off the bowling of left-arm spinner Murali
Karthik on the second day of the first Test match at
Bombay on February 25. It was his 41st Test match.

Born on December 19,
1969, at Baroda, Nayan Ramlal Mongia, made his Test debut
against Sri Lanka at Lucknow in 1993-94. Sri Lanka's
Roshan Mahanama was Mongia's first victim in Test
cricket.

He completed his 50
dismissals in Test cricket by dismissing South Arican
captain Hansi Cronje at Cape Town in 1996-97 series. It
was his 19th Test match.

Nayan Mongia dismissed
14 batsmen in the three Test series against South Africa
in South Africa in 1996-97 which was his best performance
in a Test series so far.

The first Indian wicket
keeper to dismiss 100 batsmen behind the wicket was Syed
Kirmani. Kirmani who caught 160 batsmen behind the wicket
and stumped 38 batsmen in 88 Test matches achieved this
feat in his 42 Test match against England at Bombay in
1979-80.

Kiran More was the
second Indian wicketkeeper to join the elite club of 100
dismissals. He reached this distinction in his 39 Test
match against Zimbabwe at Harare in 1992-93. More had
taken 110 catches and effected 20 stumpings in 49 Test
matches.

South
Africa enhance reputationTHE South
Africans have only enhanced their reputation by beating
India 2-0 in the Test series. The important thing was
that they believed in their strength  their pace
bowlers  and stuck to their plans. They showed
total application and complete discipline in every
department of the game. For India, Kumble did a good job.
Srinath is a world-class bowler but he is not McGrath
because he always lacks discipline.

The failure of openers
was another big factor. Ganguly has rarely scored against
quality pace attack at Test level barring his debut.
Hansie Cronje deserves full credit for extracting the
best out of every member of his team.

Vinish Garg
Panchkula

II

Hansie Cronje, captain
of the South African cricket team, deserves
congratulations for the remarkable victory over India.
They have beaten Indian on our soil after a gap of 13
years. The team played with determination and dedication.
South Africa outclassed India in all departments.

Subhash C Taneja
Rohtak

III

After being defeated in
the recently concluded tour of Australia, the Indian
cricket team has again been beaten by South Africa in the
home Test series. India lost both the Tests to South
Africa, but players like Azhar deserve praise for their
performance. The BCCI should think about the present
performance of the team and gave a chance to experienced
players like Kambli, Jadeja and Azhar.

M.R. Singla
Faridkot

IV

Indian cricket sunk low
after the defeats in Tests and one-dayers in Australia.
The story of defeats did not end there. Now we are faring
badly against South Africa. Our experiment with new faces
has failed. Neither our openers nor middle-order batsmen
can face the onslaught of our rivals.

Y.L. Chopra
Bathinda

Laras
decision

Brian Laras
decision to relinquish captaincy is shocking.

It means he wont
assist the West Indies team against Zimbabwe and Pakistan
during their forthcoming tour. With Lara, one of the best
batsmen of the world, the West Indies batting looked
fragile even against teams like New Zealand. How it will
come good without him against Pakistan is a matter of
grave concern. Obviously Laras move has filled the
cricket world with gloom. He is a great performer whose
absence from international cricket for three months
cannot be easily endured.

However, it is hoped the
break will do him a lot of good and will ultimately
benefit the West Indies team in the times to come.